Latest news with #RichardThyne
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Boy denies he was ‘worked up into a rage' before he stabbed pupil to death
A 15-year-old boy has told a jury he does not remember stabbing a fellow pupil to death at their school and denied he had worked himself 'up into a rage'. The teenager was repeatedly shown CCTV footage of the moment he stabbed Harvey Willgoose, also 15, twice in the chest at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield – sometimes in slow motion. But the boy said his memory of what happened stopped 'just before I stabbed him'. Richard Thyne KC, prosecuting, took the boy moment by moment through the CCTV footage of the incident on Thursday, asking him: 'Are you saying that you don't remember any of that?' The boy, who was giving evidence for a sixth day in his trial, said: 'Yes.' Mr Thyne said: 'The prosecution case is that you had not lost control of your actions.' The defendant replied: 'Well, I did lose control.' The prosecutor then asked him if he had 'worked yourself up into a rage about Harvey'. The boy said: 'I didn't get myself worked up over Harvey.' Mr Thyne said: 'The prosecution case is what you can see there is controlled aggression by you. What do you say about that? The defendant replied: 'There wasn't control.' The prosecutor said: 'When you stabbed Harvey in the chest, in that moment you intended either to kill him or cause him really serious harm. What do you say about that?' The boy told the jury: 'No, I didn't.' Mr Thyne said: 'Having seen now what you did, what kind of harm do you think you intended?' He replied: 'I didn't intend no harm to him.' Mr Thyne said: 'Are you saying that you can't remember the stabbing as you don't want to tell the jury the real answer?' The boy said: 'No.' The jury has heard All Saints' headteacher Sean Pender describe how the defendant said 'I'm not right in the head' shortly after the stabbing. The boy told the jury on Thursday that this was not right and he had said 'my head's not right' to Mr Pender. Mr Thyne said: 'Are you trying to twist things now?' and the boy said: 'No.' The prosecutor pointed out that, according to Mr Pender, the defendant told the head that he had stabbed Harvey twice but now he could not remember. The boy said: 'It was in the moment and it was, like, three minutes after I stabbed him.' When Mr Thyne put to him that 'you intended to cause him really serious harm', the defendant said: 'I didn't intend nothing.' He said: 'I didn't deliberately stab him.' The court has heard that the defendant, who cannot be named, has admitted manslaughter but denies murder. He has also admitted possession of a knife on school premises. Addressing the jury at the beginning of the trial, Gul Nawaz Hussain KC, defending, said: '(The defendant) did not set out to kill or seriously hurt anyone. 'The defence say (the defendant's) actions that day were the end result of a long period of bullying, poor treatment and violence, things that built one upon another until he lost control and did tragically what we've all seen.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Boy tells jury he ordered knife ‘weeks' before stabbing fellow pupil to death
A 15-year-old boy has told a jury he ordered the knife he used to kill a fellow pupil 'weeks' before the fatal stabbing at their school. The teenager was asked about the weapon as he gave evidence for a fifth day at his trial for the murder of Harvey Willgoose, also 15, at All Saints Catholic High School, in Sheffield, on February 3. On Wednesday, the boy was asked by Richard Thyne KC, prosecuting, whether it was 'days, weeks or months' before Harvey's death that he ordered the knife online. The boy said: 'Weeks or months. I'm pretty sure it was weeks.' He then said he thought it was 'after January 16'. The jury has heard about an incident in the school on January 16 when the defendant was involved in an altercation with another student and ended up repeatedly punching a wall in an inclusion room. Mr Thyne asked the boy why he ordered the knife, and he replied: 'For protection'. The boy admitted he had pictures of 'lots of different kinds of knives' on his phone and the prosecutor asked him why he chose that particular weapon. The defendant told the jury: 'Because it was a scary knife. 'Somebody would try and attack me and I would pull it out and they wouldn't try and attack me.' Mr Thyne asked him about a number of photos on his phone of him with this particular knife. The boy said he posted two of them on social media. The prosecutor asked: 'To send a message out you weren't to be messed with?' The boy agreed and said he wanted some people to believe he carried a knife. Asked by Mr Thyne if he wanted some people to believe he was prepared to use the knife, the defendant told the jury: 'No. Not really. But, if they saw I had a knife, they wouldn't really want to mess with me.' The jury at Sheffield Crown Court has been shown CCTV footage of Harvey being stabbed in a courtyard at the school at lunchtime on February 3. The court has heard that the defendant, who cannot be named, has admitted manslaughter but denies murder. He has also admitted possession of a knife on school premises. On Wednesday, the boy was asked by Mr Thyne: 'Had you tried to provoke him (Harvey)?' When the defendant said 'no', Mr Thyne asked him: 'Had you tried to wind him up earlier in the day?' The boy replied: 'No, it was the other way around.' Mr Thyne then asked: 'Were you trying to get Harvey to do something to you so you could let out your anger?' Again the boy replied 'no'. The defendant told the jury how he also bought another knife online, which was based on a design from the video game Assassin's Creed. Mr Thyne said: 'Did you have a reputation for having an interest in knives?' Th boy said: 'Not really.' He added: 'That's not what I'm known for.' Addressing the jury at the beginning of the trial, Gul Nawaz Hussain KC, defending, said: '(The defendant) did not set out to kill or seriously hurt anyone. 'The defence say (the defendant's) actions that day were the end result of a long period of bullying, poor treatment and violence, things that built one upon another until he lost control and did tragically what we've all seen.' The defendant will continue to give evidence on Thursday.
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Yahoo
Boy said ‘I'm not right in the head' after fatally stabbing pupil, jury told
A 15-year-old boy told his headteacher 'I'm not right in the head' after he fatally stabbed a fellow pupil in the heart with a hunting knife, a jury has been told. Sheffield Crown Court was shown 'shocking' footage of the stabbing incident at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield on February 3, which left 15-year-old Harvey Willgoose dead and other pupils fleeing 'in fear and panic'. Richard Thyne KC, prosecuting, told the jury that after the incident, the defendant told All Saints' head Sean Pender: 'I'm not right in the head. My mum doesn't look after me right. I've stabbed him.' The prosecutor said the boy confirmed to Mr Pender he was referring to Harvey, and that he had stabbed him once or twice. Mr Thyne said: 'Whilst waiting for the emergency services to arrive, (the defendant) also told Mr Pender that he was carrying the knife for protection.' The prosecutor told the jury how the altercation happened in a school courtyard just as the lunch break was starting. He played the CCTV footage to the jurors, telling them: 'It is shocking, but it is necessary to play it.' Mr Thyne said the prosecution case is that the CCTV shows Harvey appearing to put his left hand on the defendant's right arm before the defendant 'takes a knife out of his left pocket, passes it across into his right hand, and then stabs twice at Harvey's torso'. He said the defendant then advances towards Harvey, who backs away across the courtyard, before '(the defendant) returns towards where the incident began, gesturing towards Harvey with his knife, and appearing to shout at Harvey'. The video shows Harvey running towards the defendant, who then advances for a second time, 'bouncing on his toes, still brandishing the knife', the prosecutor said, adding that then 'Harvey backs away'. Mr Thyne said 'other pupils fled in fear and panic' as the defendant went into the dining hall still holding the knife. Staff members Carolyn Siddall and Rachel Hobkirk approached the boy as he 'was dancing around on his toes and waving the knife around, although by this stage he seemed to be saying 'I'm not going to hurt anyone'', the prosecutor said. He added: 'They told him to put the knife down but he did not do so.' He told the jury assistant head Morgan Davis arrived and 'found the defendant still waving the knife around'. As Mr Davis told him to hand over the knife, the defendant was saying to him: 'You know I can't control it,' which Mr Thyne said the teacher took to be a reference to his anger issues, given previous incidents of violent behaviour at school. The prosecutor said: 'Mr Davis held his hand out and took the knife from (the defendant). 'At the same time the headteacher, Mr Pender, placed his arm around (the defendant)'s shoulder and took him along the corridor to his office.' Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Thyne told the jury Harvey was stabbed in the heart with a hunting knife which had a 13cm, serrated-edged blade. Mr Thyne told jurors the defendant 'admits that he stabbed Harvey causing his death'. He said: 'He also admits that the stabbing was not carried out in lawful self-defence.' The jury has heard the defendant has admitted Harvey's manslaughter, but denies murdering him. The boy, who cannot be named, has also admitted possession of a knife on school premises. The defendant sat in the glass-fronted dock, wearing a white shirt with no tie, as Mr Thyne outlined the case against him. He was flanked by a number of adults, including an intermediary. Mr Thyne told the jury about an incident five days before the stabbing, when two members of staff physically intervened in a dispute between two other students. The prosecutor said the defendant tried to get involved and 'had to be physically restrained and removed by staff'. He told the jury that the school went into lockdown after the defendant said he had seen one of the two boys with a knife, but the police who attended did not find a weapon. The prosecutor said the defendant did not go to school the following two days and a relative contacted the school to say he was 'scared of going to school because of the lockdown'. He said that Harvey, who was not at school when this incident happened, sent a text message to his dad saying 'am not going in that school while people have knives'. Mr Thyne said this incident led to Harvey and the defendant falling out in a Snapchat group, with each siding with one of the boys involved in the initial dispute, who had been suspended. He said that in one message on February 1, Harvey sent the defendant his address, telling him that if he had a problem 'you got my Addy I'll deal with it simple'.
